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"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder." Einstein

#M21Ireland – A broad, democratic initiative for the ‘UN Anti Racism Day Rally’, called and organised by a number of anti-racist groups, civil society associations, NGOs, trade unions and others. The Irish Anti-War Movement is proud to be a supporting organisation.

Assemble 11:30 at Central Bank Plaza, Dame Street, Dublin 2, followed by a march to Garden of Remembrance.

Hopefully with the busy city centre our message of anti-racism and diversity will have a huge exposure.

Multiple anti-racist, civil society, NGO’s, migrant and faith community groups, trade unions have come together to organise the March 21st rally.

21st March 2015 is the “UN INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST RACISM”, a day when the people across the globe show their opposition to racism and discrimination. This annual event declared as a memorial by the United Nations in response to the murder of 69 anti-apartheid demonstrators in Sharpeville, South Africa, in 1960. Proclaiming the day in 1966, the United Nations General Assembly called on the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination.

Various events and negative developments around the world show us the importance of fighting against every type of racism, hatred at every level and promote unity and solidarity among people.

The UK government is refusing to guarantee that it will not misuse the intercepted lawyer-client communications of two rendition victims in their legal cases again the British government.

Yunus Rahmatullah and Amanatullah Ali, from Pakistan, are bringing legal action against the British government for its complicity in their torture and rendition. The men were captured in Iraq in 2004 by British forces, before being rendered by the US to Bagram prison, Afghanistan. They endured a decade of secret US detention and torture in Bagram before their release last May without charge or trial.

The UK Government is refusing to agree to a request by the men to take “reasonable” steps not to “read, listen to or otherwise use” their communications with their lawyers. Those communications are confidential, and enjoy protected status under the longstanding principle of legal professional privilege (LPP).

The men’s request is the latest in a series of recent developments on the issue of government interception in legal cases. In recent weeks the UK has signed a undertaking not to read or listen to any legally-privileged material relating to another rendition victim, Abdul-Hakim Belhaj from Libya. That agreement, nearly identical to the one submitted by Mr Ali and Mr Rahmatullah, came after the government admitted in the course of Mr Belhaj’s case that UK intelligence agencies’ policies regarding the monitoring of lawyer-client conversations were unlawful.

European Court confirms Polish complicity in CIA rendition and torture

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has today [17/02/2015] confirmed its judgement that Poland actively assisted the CIA’s European “black site” programme, which saw detainees held and tortured in secret prisons across the Continent.

In July 2014, the ECHR had ruled that Poland “facilitated” the torture, secret detention and unlawful transfer of Abu Zubaydah, who is now held in Guantanamo Bay.

Mr Zubaydah was flown from a secret site in Thailand to another CIA prison in Stare Kiejkuty in northern Poland, where he was detained and tortured during 2002 and 2003. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) detailed in its recent report how Mr Zubaydah was subjected to torture numerous times by the CIA, before the Agency concluded that he was not a member of al Qaeda at all.

Today’s ruling by the ECHR confirms its 2014 judgement and rejects a request by Poland to refer it to its Grand Chamber for potential reconsideration.

The 2014 judgment described the evidence that Mr Zubaydah was detained in Poland as “coherent, clear and categorical,” and ruled that it was “inconceivable” that Poland was unaware of his mistreatment. It concluded that “Poland, for all practical purposes, facilitated the whole process, created the conditions for it to happen and made no attempt to prevent it from occurring.”

the inclusion of politicians from countries with appalling human rights records, e.g. Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, in Paris last Sunday week vividly represents the cynical efforts of many powerful states to make political capital from the Charlie Hebdo atrocity and is insulting to the memory of the murdered journalists and cartoonists. Israel killed 17 journalists alone in its attack on Gaza last summer. The Turkish state regularly harasses and imprisons journalists. Saudi Arabia publicly beheaded a total of 87 people in 2014 and 10 so far this year, (the most recent a Burmese woman who screamed in terror while being dragged down the street before her beheading) and is publicly flogging Raif Badawi for expressing freedom of thought, a mainstay of journalism.

While the media spotlight, belatedly shines on Saudi Arabia’s despicable human rights record, one aspect missing from the analysis is how the major western powers prop up this reactionary regime, particularly through trade in armaments. The US Congressional Research Service reports that Riyadh signed $66 billion worth of arms transfer agreements with the US in 2011 alone. The Campaign Against Arms Trade reports that Britain, under David Cameron’s premiership, has approved export licenses to Saudi Arabia worth £3.8bn, with £1.6bn of those in 2014 alone. In February last year, frequent visitor Prince Charles frolicked with the Saudi Sheiks while British defence firm BAE sold them 72 Typhoon fighter jets worth £4.4 billion.

Obviously anti-war and peace activists, progressives and radicals will condemn the horrible murder of journalists in France but do we need to say more than this ? What role have imperialism, war and racism played in this? Are the 'world leaders' who gathered in Paris really defenders of freedom?